The Asperger Languages: "Code, Chaos, and Victory: My Hackathon Saga"
"When Divergent Thinking Meets Digital Mayhem: A Tale of Triumph"
Strap in, because I'm about to take you on a hackathon heist so twisted, it could make a spiral staircase look straight. Our battlefield? A digital coliseum hosted by the titans of AI4BELGIUM, BOSA, and the Belgian Justice Department. The team? JUST04, which we later upgraded to JUSTICE4ALL, because who doesn't love a good rebrand?
A Plot Twist Right Out of the Gate
Our tale begins with an ensemble cast: four corporate crusaders, one legal eagle, and yours truly—the wildcard with a penchant for pitching. Our merry band was more mismatched than socks on laundry day, with teamwork as absent as calories in water.
Our self-declared project manager dove headfirst into designing a logo with software so ancient, it might as well have been a cave painting. "Buddy, it's an AI hackathon," I mumbled (several times , that many times I could have it on my businesscards (akin Mark ‘'I’m CEO Bitch’ Zuckerberg)) , watching our chances of winning dissipate like a magician's smoke bomb.
From Zero to Heroes
Amidst the chaos, our data scientists emerged as the unsung heroes, coding like their keyboards were on fire. Meanwhile, our business developer mistook me for a relic from the Boomer era—clearly unaware of my two and a half decades of hackathon high jinks.
The big leagues—IBM and PWC—were there in full force, flaunting their numbers like peacocks. Day two dawns, and IBM's making me googly eyes, hoping to snag a win with a bit of my secret sauce. But my allegiance was with my band of misfits. Although difficult to say NO to big Bluen I remembered that they fired me in 2006 because of a bad quarter.
The Grand Finale: From Mayhem to Mastery
Fast forward through a montage of trials, errors, and more facepalms than a slapstick comedy, and voilà: cohesion! Our final act? An AI virtual agent so sharp, it could slice through data with the precision of a Michelin-star chef. Unbiased, ethically upstanding, and sporting a success rate that had us all grinning like Cheshire cats.
The competition? They might have had the flash, but we had the substance. When the dust settled, it wasn't the corporate giants standing tall; it was us, JUSTICE4ALL, proof that even in a sea of Goliaths, a band of Davids with a slingshot of ingenuity could triumph.
The Moral of Our Story
In the hackathon hustle, it's not the size of the team in the fight, but the size of the innovation in the team. Remember, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro and I am a Pro in Weird (or just Quirky)
Catch you on the flip side